DAN THORNER

Dan is a full-time teacher and coach who loves working with kids and consistently creates an environment that fosters hard work, resilience, teamwork, and joy.

Dan was born and raised in Washington, DC and has been close friends with RJ since their first day of kindergarten together at Janney Elementary in Tenleytown.  After Janney, Dan went to GDS, where he played baseball and captained the Soccer and Wrestling teams (beating RJ’s alma mater Wilson in all three sports his senior year), before attending the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. 

While in high school, Dan began his coaching career at Home Run Baseball Camp in DC’s AU Park neighborhood.  Beginning as a junior counselor, Dan coached at HRBC for over 20 years, eventually becoming the camp’s assistant director.

After graduating from Penn with a degree in Psychology and History, Dan moved with RJ to the town of Consuelo in the Dominican Republic where they ran Beisbol y Libros, a non-profit after school reading and baseball program.  The experience of working with 400 kids, managing a staff of 15-20, and living in an environment so foreign to the one he grew up in continues to have a profound effect.  Dan learned to speak Spanish while he lived in Consuelo and developed a more comprehensive understanding of the joy, enthusiasm, determination, and good fortune required to make it from the Dominican to the Big Leagues.

When Dan returned to the United States, he married his long-time girlfriend (who he met while coaching baseball) and began his teaching career at Beauvoir: The National Cathedral Elementary School.  Working on the Cathedral Close gave Dan a chance to further his coaching career as an assistant on the St Albans baseball staff, where he once again found himself working side by side with RJ.

Dan and his wife, Dr. Dara Thorner, now live in Bethesda with their 3 children: Jake, Ben, and Abby and the newest addition to the family, a pandemic puppy named Lefty.  Dan has now been teaching 2nd Grade at Beauvoir for 15 years and his wife runs her own private psychology practice.  He spends his free time with his wife and kids and rooting for his beloved Philadelphia Phillies, Eagles, Flyers, and Sixers.